One hundred percent of the Internet-using population has now been exposed to computer viruses... And many if not most computers have been infected . If your computer is infected and you think you don't care, keep in mind that your computer could be infecting thousands of other computers every day. I'm spending hours helping people try to recover from infections. Once you are infected, the cure can be worse than the prevention. I'm having to completely erase and re-format some people's hard drives to completely recover from infections. You can largely prevent infections if you take three steps. Sorry, but this is the cost of using the Internet and e-mail today.
Update your Windows XP operating system (weekly). Using Internet Explorer, go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ [it is under TOOLS] and follow the instructions. If you have not done this during the past few months you are seriously exposed. If you don't patch the known vulnerabilities in Windows, your machine WILL become infected, even if you don't read e-mail or visit web sites. Just being connected to the Internet can open your machine to attackers. And, Microsoft Office users must also update Office applications ... got to http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/ to patch vulnerabilities. And, if you are still using Windows 98/ME, you must at least upgrade to Windows XP. Windows 98 is no longer supported by Microsoft, and it makes no sense investing time or money trying to make it secure. The new Windows "Vista" and Windows 7 are currently available.
If you intend to connect a computer to the Internet, a good anti-virus program is a must for your computer. The bigger the database it draws from, and the more automatic its operation, the better.
Computer Viruses Explained
A properly engineered virus is a real attention getter, usually making the news on radio, television, newspapers, and Web sites. They tend to show us that although we have become truly high-tech and globally interconnected, we are still quite vulnerable.
To illustrate this, I ask you to remember a few truly simple viruses from the past. Recently, the Melissa virus was deemed so powerful, major companies including Microsoft shut down their email services until the virus was contained, and anti-virus vendors got caught up and offered removal tools. The I Love You virus had a similar effect. The simple Mydoom worm infected over a quarter-million computers in a single day, and is still circulating today. These were all very simple from a coding standpoint, yet very effective, and certainly got a lot of attention.
Let's begin by covering the most common types of threats on the Internet today: Read More
If Self-Help Fails, Call an Atlanta Computer Repair professional.
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